1. Planting Science: The Growth Rate of Bloomsdale Spinach

2. How do added organisms affect growth rate of Bloomsdale Spinach seeds?
Research Question
How do added organisms affect growth rate of Bloomsdale Spinach seeds?
How did our science mentor guide us about Research Questions?
What did we observe (or remember) from everyday life/class that made us come up with this question?
We have thought about plants growing outside, and all the organisms that come in contact with a plant everyday naturally, such as worms, insects, and bacteria. We were wondering if these organisms affect plant growth. We will be investigating the affect, focusing on spinach growth, in a controlled experiment with different organisms.
Our science mentor, Kelly, was able to guide us about research questions in various ways. We expressed to Kelly that we wanted to experiment with the addition of organisms to the soil, and how those organisms affect growth rate. Kelly recommended that we research different bacteria, fungi, and organisms that are beneficial to Bloomingdale Spinach. Kelly also advised our group to research different soil types to ensure that the Bloomingdale Spinach would be compatible with the soil we chose to use.
Predictions:
We are planning to test multiple organisms, including earth worms, mycorrhiza fungi, and bacteria powder, and comparing them to a plant with no added organisms. There are definitely different possible outcomes for our study, but we predict that the seeds planted with earth worms will have the best growth. We feel this is a good prediction because earth worms are the organisms that seem to be the most commonly found in soil in nature. Worms help to aerate the soil and we feel this will be beneficial to seed growth. We think organism that will attribute to the second best growth will be the bacteria powder, and following that in growth will be the plant with the mycorrhiza fungus. We predict that the plant with the least amount of growth will be the control plant, since there are no added organisms to this plant. We believe the bacteria will beat the fungus, because we think that bacteria is more commonly found in soils compared to fungi.
List of materials that we will need for our design setup
Top Soil
Bloomsdale Spinach Seeds-3 seeds per pot (24 total)
Bacteria: Myco Blast Mycorrhizae
Fungi: Supre Myco Tea Mycorrhiae & Trichoderma
Red Worms
Recyclable pots (8 pots total)
Distilled water (30mL per watering)
Natural Sunlight

3. How did our science mentor guide us about Experimental Design?
We have chosen to use 8 different pots of the Bloomingdale Spinach. Each pot has 3 seeds per pot. The seeds were planted 1/2 inch down in the soil. The pots each have 6 Tablespoons of Top Soil. Each plant will be watered once a day, Monday-Friday, with 30mL of water. 2 pots will be our control for the experiment. These pots will include the 3 seeds and the top soil. No additives are necessary. 2 pots will include red earthworms. There needs to be 2 red earthworms per pot (4 total). 2 pots will have a Mycorrhizae Superpack. The Mycorrhizae pack is mixed with a gallon of distilled water. After the Mycorrhizae is dissolved completely in the water, 30 mL of the solution is added to each of the 2 pots, one time. After, the pots should be watered with just 30 mL of distilled water. The last 2 pots will have a the Supre Myco Tea packet-this is the compost tea alternative that has bacteria infused within the mixture. The bacteria pack is also mixed with a gallon of distilled water. After the packet has been completely dissolved add 30 mL of the solution to each of the pots, one time. After, the plants should be watered with 30 mL of distilled water. The plants need to be measured as soon as the first sprout is formed in whatever pot has the first sprout. After the first sprout is visible on the surface of the plant, the plants should be measured during class time, Mondays and Wednesdays, until the end date of the experiment.
How did our science mentor guide us about Experimental Design?
Photo of the design setup
Our science mentor, Kelly, was very helpful when guiding our group throughout the Experimental Design process. After we proposed the initial experiment to Kelly, she had several suggestions that we took into consideration and eventually used to improve our Experimental Design. Kelly suggested using a control in the experiment. She also suggested conducting the experiment on a smaller scale. Finally, Kelly suggested recording the date when the first seedling emerged from the soil.

4. Photos across time

5. Qualitative Data:

6. Quantitative Data:

7. Conclusion: What does the data tell us?
After watering, measuring, and recording data about our plants over a period of time, we found results and came to a conclusion. We averaged the heights of the plants and stalks of each category, with the categories being control group, plants with worms in the soil, plants with bacteria added to the soil, and plants with fungus added to the soil. The averages for each of the categories came to the following: Final Average Height of the Control Group: 3.48 cm Final Average Height of the Worm Group: cm Final Average Height of the Bacteria Group: cm Final Average Height of the Fungus Group: cm In conclusion, the plants that had fungus added to their soil had the best rate of growth. We had not predicted that this will occur, we predicted that worms will lead to the best growth since they are found naturally in the soil. We think that the worms were not as successful as we thought because the worms did die in the beginning because they did not have enough soil. We are thinking the lack of soil made the worms less successful than what we expected. Through research we have found that fungus helps plants absorb nutrients and water. Fungus also helps digest organic matter that is already found in the soil such as nitrogen. We believe that this explains our results, because the plant was able to absorb nutrients and water more efficiently which lead to increased growth. It would be important to repeat the experiment multiple times to make the results always line up. It would also be interesting to test different types of fungus to see if a certain type of fungus is more successful than others.
How can farmers use the data to help a sprout farming business?
Farmers could use the data we collected throughout our experiment to help sprout a farming business in various ways. A farmer could identify that the seeds were most successful in growth with the addition of fungus to the soil. With this knowledge, the farmer could provide his/her fields with various fungal additives (that are not harmful to humans) that will help supplement the crop’s growth. The farmer could also conduct his/her own experiments about which brand or which type of fungus is most beneficial to the specific type of crop being produced.